


What's Left of the Past is Just That

by EmCantEven



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Minor Character Death, Multi, Superheroes, Witchcraft, choppy time line, discussion of past lives, no incest in my story, referenced past tim drake/damian wayne
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 23:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17693510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmCantEven/pseuds/EmCantEven
Summary: People die, Tim knows that, has come to terms with that... maybe. He just thought that he would have more time before it was his time. Not to die though, to get kidnapped and locked in a glass cage. He came to terms with that a while ago too. What he's having trouble with now is the ancient goddess who is calling herself his mother and shoving him into a world that knows him but he knows nothing about.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So here is the first chapter, yadda yadda yadda, you know how this whole speel goes. None of the major characters are mine the plot is though and so are all of the original characters. The chapters will get longer as time goes on and the characters/world becomes a little more flushed out but ya know... work ethic. 
> 
> The chapters will have some pretty significant time jumps so if you guys want me to make a timeline for you all at any point just lmk. And if you notice any major grammar errors just leave a comment especially if it's in any foreign languages used, English is my first language I am proficient in German and barely passable in Italian so go easy on me.
> 
> Also if any of you are following any of my other stories I promise updates on those are coming... just slowly. Plot bunnies keep jumping from one story to the next and I made a mistake on taking up 7 classes and 2 jobs this semester so wish me luck.
> 
> ~Ciao

He didn’t believe in angels. Well he didn’t before he opened his eyes in a place he didn’t know and in a bed he didn’t recognize to see what he decided had to be an angel because the possibility of him being alive at this point just wasn’t possible.

“Welcome back Timothy.” Tim had heard that an angel’s voice could be as sweet as a ripe peach and as pleasant to listen to as the sound of a gurgling stream, but he never believed them, not until now. “I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up.” She reached for him and he allowed her to help sit him up on the bed.

The angel’s soft pink hair seemed to shimmer and shine from the halo of light that was surrounding her, her irises mesmerized him as he tried following the cloudy swirls of green and yellow. For the first time in a long time, he felt at peace.

“Timmy?” The angel’s eyebrows creased in worry when he didn’t reply. “Can you hear me?” A rough and strained ‘yes’ left his mouth and the angel’s eyebrows creased more. “Alright don’t speak, I’ll get some tea ready for you.” As she turned he noticed that she had small sprigs of lily-of-the-valley braided into her hair. As she walked away Tim took the opportunity to look around the room he was in.

It was less of a room he decided and more of a one-room cabin. There was a little kitchen area in the farthest corner from the bed he is sitting on, cluttered with pots and pans, a few books, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Just to the right of the kitchen was what he assumed to be the front door. On the right side of the front door and directly in front of Tim’s bed there was a fireplace nestled near the corner surrounded by bookshelves that were heavily weighted down with large tombs and scrolls. There was also an old, faded, circular rug that was starting to fray around the edges, and a large L-shaped couch stacked with pillows in every shape and color. In the center of the cabin, there was a long wooden table standing on yet another old, faded rug that held three chairs on the long side and a one on each end. To the right side of his bed, there was another bed around the same size as his, it was messy, he noted as if someone had recently slept there. Beyond the second bed was the only other room in the cabin. It protruded from the wall and Tim decided that it must either be a really large closet or the bathroom. In between the odd room and the bed, there was a strangely out of place empty space that gave off the feeling that something important was missing.    

The strangest thing he noted was the half-melted candles littered around the cabin, the dried and drying herbs hanging from the ceiling, and the strange black table situated in the corner of the cabin next to his bed. The little table was situated in the middle of a wreath of pine branches and pomegranate blossoms, the lit candles were giving off a mixed scent of hyacinth, almond blossom, mint, and narcissus. It was an odd scent but also somehow pleasant. On the top of the table sat a small speckled egg sitting in a nest made of willow and white poplar branches.

“If you see a black snake around here don't worry, that’s just Anatol, he likes to frighten new people, but he’s been watching over you faithfully when I have to leave.” The angel caused Tim to jump when she suddenly appeared at his side holding a steaming cup. “You also probably don't remember me, it’s been quite a while since we've seen each other. I'm Loch Ness, but people have the tendency to call me Ness or Nessie.”

Tim raised an eyebrow causing her to laugh. “I know, I know. My parents visited Loch Ness before I was born, of course, it wasn't called that at the time, and fell in love with the word Loch so when I was born they named me Loch. I adopted the name Ness when I left Italy and started my studies in the north.”

Tim shrugged and took a sip of his tea, he couldn’t pick out all the flavors but there was a very prominent honey and peppermint flavor. “The one you are tasting that you can’t figure out is fenugreek. The peppermint is to cover it and the salt up.”

“How can you answer my questions without me asking them?” Tim asked his voice still raspy but significantly better.

“I told you, you might not remember me but I know you, we knew each other a long time ago.” Ness opened a trunk at the end of what appeared to be her bed and pulled out an old, faded photograph and handed it to Tim. “Your name then was Johannes Timothy, and you were my teacher.” The photograph was of three people standing on the shore of the River Thames with the Tower Bridge in the background. What shocked Tim was that one of the people standing in the picture was a slightly older looking version of him, the girl was Ness looking exactly the same as she did now, and the other was not someone her had ever seen before but a faint pulling on his mind told him he knew the other man and to be wary.

“I- I don’t understand,” Tim said handing the photo back to her.

“That’s alright. People don’t always remember their past selves at first, or ever.” Ness caressed the photo before placing it back in the trunk. “The thing is, I’m a witch, and you are the witch that taught me.”   


	2. Chapter 2

Memory Lane is a real place Timothy finds out, but it is not as most people think. Memory lane isn’t thousands of photos of your life posted on a wall for you to look at when you are feeling down or a movie of your life you watch as you are dying. No, Memory Lane is a little bookstore located in a forgotten corner of Seattle, Washington right in between a run-down looking marijuana bakery and a florist’s greenhouse.

“You know we don’t have to do this right?” Ness says from where she stands beside him. “Remembering isn’t the most important thing.”

“I know.” Tim nods his head. “But even if I never regain my memories I still wish to know who I was.”

“Alright then. Do you want to start at the very beginning or do you want to work your way back?”

“Well, when you start a series of books you start from the beginning, so that’s what I’ll do.”

“That is always a good option, now the books should be charmed so that only you and others you allow can read it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the book will automatically translate to English or any of the other languages you are fluent in, some secrets are for when you remember only.” Ness pushes the door open and the   
tinkling of a bell flows through the shop.

The shop is lighter than he expected from the look of the outside, he guessed there was something to the whole not reading a book by its cover. Natural light shines down from the ceiling and vines creep their way down the full shelves of books and scrolls and ancient looking artifacts.

“Sometimes people leave things behind for their next self to find,” Ness says when she catches Tim looking at a skull that looks like the back of it was busted in. “Hathum, Kelly,” She reads. “I remember him, he’s a necromancer.”

Tim nods in understanding. “The skull makes sense.”

“I see your sense of humor has not changed, Timothy,” a wizened old man says as he steps out from another row of books, his raspy voice empathetically hurting Tim’s throat.

“Bookkeeper,” Ness bows her head in respect. “It is good to see you again.”

“It is good to see you young ash-borne, although a bit too soon in my opinion. I was hoping the young Lord would have remembered this time around.” The Bookkeeper turned away and waved in a ‘follow’ motion. “This way you two, I had to move dear Timothy’s collection. It was getting too large to keep out in the front.”

Ness moves to follow and Tim right behind her but doesn’t make it two steps before he feels an itch in his mind trying to lead him off to the right. Tim tries to ignore it he really does, but he just can’t and so instead of following the old man and his angel   
he takes a right turn into a much darker corner of the store. Here dust floats through the air and Tim has to hold back a sneeze and the green vines that draped over the shelves lie dead and decaying. This corner of the old shop feels heavy and oppressive, like something dark lives here, forgotten and betrayed.

The tugging pulls Tim towards one collection in particular. The shelves here are full of heavy journals and sharp weapons, swords, daggers, knives, axes, some weapons Tim can’t even begin to name. He runs his fingers over the older journal spines, his eyes slipping over the weapons. He stops and his eyes land on the newest looking journal in   
the collection.

“Jack Da-”

“What are you doing?” He was ripped away from the book by a frantic looking Ness. “We do not venture into this part of the shop.” Her hissed speech left no room to argue and he did not look back as she pulled him away from the dimness and back into the main part of the shop.

“Why aren’t we allowed back there?” Tim asks eyes on the hand latched around his bicep.

“It’s not that we aren’t allowed it’s that we just don’t go there.” Ness stops in front of a series of shelves the Bookkeeper was standing at the end of with a pile wax tablets so old they looked as if they would turn to dust.

“Ah, I see you managed to find our young Lord.” The Bookkeeper’s eyes seemed to twinkle. “Here you are. The journal from your first life.”

“Are you sure? That doesn’t look like a journal.”

“Your soul is old, Timmy,” Ness says taking the tablets. “Older than most, even if you eventually do remember your past selves you won’t be able to remember all of them. The human brain is not capable of holding that much information. Some things will be purely unconscious, others a slight tug at the back of your mind. You may remember your third life better than you will your most recent life, and don’t be afraid   
if you can’t tell one life from another or remember what time period you are in.”

“It’s completely normal.” The Bookkeeper nods his head in agreeance. “That’s why when you start to read these journals, Ness here will come to collect them for you. It won’t be safe for you to leave the cabin for the foreseeable future.”

“You can still back out of this Tim, no-one would think badly of you. Many witches never read their own journals and just wait to be reborn into a life where they remember everything.”

“No- no I want to, I  _ need  _ to.” Tim takes the tablet off the top of the pile and runs his fingers over the wax carvings.

“I’ll come collect more when he is in need of them.” Ness’ voice was far away as Tim stared at the tablet and watched as the Hieroglyphs started swirling and changing into Arabic and then English.

Taking notice of Tim’s single-minded reading the Bookkeeper mutters a silencing charm underneath his breath and leans into Ness. “Perhaps we should try to dissuade him from reading about his last life or any involving  _ him _ .”

“That will be difficult. He was before me, they never told me when they came together only that they did every so often when one or the other knew to look.” Ness’ stance changed and her eyes held a faraway look in them. “Maybe the journals will keep it hidden. There must be a reason he was born without his memories this time right?”

“Only time will tell.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tim had taken to the habit of taking a walk through the forest that grew around the cottage in the mornings. Usually, his walks were uneventful, a squirrel there a rabbit here, one time he even saw a snake and another time a deer, and if he came across a herb he knew they were running low on he would collect it, but today the forest just seemed off. If he had to identify the feeling he got from the forest it would have been uneasy mixed with a hint of excitement, it was an odd feeling that permeated the air around him.

_ “Timothy.” _

Tim stopped in his tracks whipping his head around for the source of his name, but nothing and no-one appeared so he put it out of his mind thinking it was just the lack of sleep and the odd atmosphere of the forest getting to him, until-

_ “Timothy-” _

That time he knew his name had been called and against his better judgment he called back, “Yes? Who is there?”

_ “Timothy-” _ It was coming from the trees, Tim instantly realized freezing.

Ness had warned him about the trees, his past self had warned him about the trees, but like a fool he hadn’t listened and now he was pretty sure he was going to die. He looked around trying to find the quickest escape route back to the cabin but the forest had changed around him. No longer were the trunks brown and the leaves green with dappled sunlight illuminating the space around him. No, the trunks had darkened to a black and the leaves were gold, the space beyond the trees was hidden by shadow and red light, the color of blood, drenched the forest floor.

_ “Timothy-”  _

Tim no longer cared, he bolted in a random direction and pushed through the heavy foliage that blocked his path. If he could just  _ get away  _ then he would be safe. Far to the right Tim could hear the heavy footfalls of  _ something _ , something big and heading right towards him. He picked up the pace.

He picked up the pace, but it was dark and red and his name was being called over and over by the trees, by Dick and Bruce and Jason, by Clark and Diana and Alfred and Arthur, by his mother and father, by Cass and Babs and Steph, by Kon and Bart and Cassie and Garth and Raven, even by Damian and Ras’. It was too much and too loud and too all at once. And it was  _ so  _ dark and he didn’t see the tree root that caught his foot and his wrist caught wrong on the fall down snapping with an audible ‘CRACK’ over the shouting of his name. As his head hit the forest floor he caught sight of glowing amber eyes and blood red claws.

* * *

 

When he awakes his head is pillowed on a bed of silver moss and he is facing a pond that reflects golden sunlight.

“Welcome back young one,” a deep female voice purrs in a way that reminds Tim of Selina Kyle.

Tim slowly rises to a sit, getting pretty tired of waking up in alien places to women he doesn’t know but feels he should. “Whe-” He chokes on his words as his eyes land on a large black leopard laying not too far away from him, pinning him in place with the same glowing eyes as back in the forest.

“I have been told that you do not remember your past, and I was willing to wait for you, but the forest is not the place for a budding witch with no protection.” The female voice is coming from the leopard Tim realizes. “My name is Sabine, I am your familiar and protector, much the same as the relationship between Anatol and Ness.”

“Ness didn’t tell me about you,” Tim manages to say. “And my journals never told about a familiar named Sabine.”

“I asked her not to, I wanted to be the one to introduce myself to you.” The large cat placed her head on her paws. “Your past selves didn't view me as a familiar, even though that is my proper title, you viewed me as a guide, a friend.”

Tim perked up immediately. “You’re the one who snuck into the fortress to lecture me about the subtleties of politics and then left me there for another two weeks! You basically grounded me for a month for insinuating that the princess looked like a pig!”

“She did have an upturned nose,” Sabine blinked slowly. “I am glad you have returned to me even if you do not remember yourself.”

“And I thank you for protecting my forgetful student while I was away.” Tim’s head whipped to the side as Ness entered the grove. “I don’t blame you, Tim, the forest can be very alluring to those who have not been trained to block out its song. Although because it’s you I wouldn’t be surprised if the forest was just trying to get your attention and got angry when you couldn’t respond.”

“You always did have a greater connection to the forest than most,” Sabine chimed in. “It’s why you built the cabin where you did.”

“I built that cabin?” Tim asked looking back and forth between the two females.

“Yep, although we both have separate residences on earth and even a few in different dimensions. A favorite of yours was always Atlantis while I myself prefer Olympia.”

“He also had a preference for the underwater selkie kingdom, although I stand behind the fact that it was less of a preference for the kingdom itself and more of a preference of its prince.”

“Ummm yes, I can see that,” Sabine nodded her head. “Tall, broad-shouldered, about three times his size.”

“He has a type.”

“I do not have a type!”

“Yes you do, you always do, and it always happens to do be the same, someone who can easily kick your ass without trying,” Ness shot back, laughter in her eyes.

“Tim’s eyes widened in realization. “Cassie and Steph.” Ness and Sabine sent a look to each other before both shook their heads.

“Yes, Tim, yes.”


	4. Chapter 4

You know, Tim never thought this would be his life, having dinner with the King of Avalon, Merlin, and a thousand year old Ent in a dimension that exists between time and space, in the fog between the living and the dead, learning magic from his past selves’ student, but that’s just the way the cards fold some times.

“So Timothy, have you chosen your new name yet? For the Binding ceremony at the next full moon?” Merlin asks his voice raspy like an old man’s would be, but strong as if he was only a young man. Merlin confuses Tim, made his head hurt. “You know it is only a few days away.”

Tim had also never prayed for his past selves’ student to appear out of nowhere before but he was now. “I had a few suggestions in mind. Nothing too concrete yet.”

“Must… choose… quickly…” The ent, who Tim had already forgotten the name of said. Tim had to hold back a snort. Quickly the ancient being said, as he took a pause between each of its words.

“Stop patronizing the young Lord,” the King said. “He hasn’t even recalled his past lives yet. Lady Ness is going to have to take him to Memory Lane sooner rather than later. He can choose a name that suits him after he remembers who he is, even if that means he has to wait for a couple more moon cycles.”

Tim shook his head at the bickering, smiling he wondered how this did indeed become his life.

~

“Forgive and forget,” Ness says softly, the wind bringing her voice to Tim who stands behind her. “That is the first lesson the mortals try to teach.”

“Is that my first lesson here too?” Tim walks forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with the pink-haired girl. “‘Cause that’s always been a bit of a problem for me.”

“No, I’m not going to teach you to forgive and forget, it’s a stupid lesson. To forgive someone for eating the last pop tart, that’s acceptable, but to forgive an abuser, or a killer, or a betrayer, those are offenses that can never be forgiven.”

“You speak from experience.” It was meant to be a question, but it really wasn’t.

“And you’ve grown from the same,” Ness replied. “ I know why you have chosen to stay by my side, Tim. Not from some sense of belonging or loyalty, but because you are too full of pain to return to them, and that’s okay.”

“It’s not,” Tim denies with a shake of his head. “You deserve better.”

“You deserve better. You deserve to be angry and hurt and to put yourself first for once without feeling guilty.” Ness’ eyes met Tim’s and he felt that he was being burned by fire. “You and your happiness are important and I am not going to allow anyone to stand in the way of that.”

“How long has it been? Since my death I mean,” Tim asks looking up from the journal he was holding.

“Well from the day you disappeared to when I found you in the fog was a year, but I haven't been back to earth since then so I wouldn’t know. Time doesn’t exist here,” Ness was shuffling a deck of tarot cards in front of the fire, its orange glow bathing her in an ethereal light, Sabine curled by her side asleep and Anatol wrapped around her neck.

“Well, the next time you go can you pick me up a newspaper or something?” Tim looks back down at the journal. “Sometimes I can’t remember who or where I am.” His eyes stayed on the journal missing the worry Ness sends his way.

~

“What’s this?” Tim asks holding up the tablet Ness dropped off with the new journal.

“A tablet.”

“I know that, but why?”

“Well you asked for a newspaper to keep up with what is happening on earth so I figured that if you had a tablet you would be able to check daily instead of weekly or monthly, keep yourself more up-to-date and in the moment,” Ness shrugged from where she stood in the kitchen. “I knew that you losing yourself was a possibility so I’m happy to be a messenger, but from what I discovered while on Earth is that you enjoyed technology, so-” she made a waving motion at his hand.

“Thank you, how will I keep it charged?” Ness smirked and snapped her fingers and there was suddenly a charger sitting in front of him. “I thought we weren’t supposed to do reckless magic.”

“Oh god, you are sounding like your old self again.” Ness blanched. “I trust you have already found the outlets around?”

“Yep,” Tim said absentmindedly as he turned the tablet on. ‘ Tuesday, November 20, 2018,’ it read. “Two years and a bit. I have been ‘dead’ for just over two years now.”

“Yep. Time flies when trapped in isolation from the rest of creation.” It was meant to be a joke but it just sounded sad. “Sorry that you can't return to Earth until you finish your training.”

“Magickal training, I’ve let myself slip on the physical training pretty hard. I don’t even think I could hold my own against Alfred the Cat right about now.”

“How about this, after your naming day I introduce you to someone in the coven who can help whip you right into shape again?”

“You whip me into shape magically and they physically? Sounds perfect.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Sometimes you will turn to say something to a person who isn’t there,” Tim says one day shocking Ness. “You’ll look very confused before a look of resignation crosses your face, who are you looking for?”

Ness sighs and sits across from him at the table. She reaches out and grabs his wrist moving his hand so it rests atop a carving Tim hadn’t noticed before. He runs his fingers over the carving and mutters, “JD, just like in Memory Lane.” Tim’s eyes follow Ness as she leaves the table and pulls out the same picture that she had shown Tim.

“His name was Jack, but everybody called him JD, well except you of course, you called him by his chosen name.” Ness hands the picture over to him with shaking hands.

“Where is he?” Tim asks the question even though he is not 100% certain he wants to know the answer.

“He left, chose to leave, not long after he left, you died. He was there at the funeral, but hasn’t been in contact, not even his familiar.”

“But why? Why would he leave?” Ness reached across the table and smoothed the skin in between Tim’s eyebrows.

“We never knew, I suspect why, but he never told us. He’s gone now, died sometime after World War Two. I wasn’t around Earth at that time, I was helping out in the Afterlife, consoling victims, helping families to find each other, and punishing those who deserved it. I never saw the war, but I suspect you and Jack did.” Ness had a far away look in her eyes. “I hadn’t looked for you in that life and anything that may have happened I feel that, that is on me.”

Before Tim could open his mouth Ness was waving her hand. “It’s no bother, it’s the past.” Ness eyed the picture in his hand, “You can keep it. It was yours originally, besides you got on a lot better with JD then I ever did.”

“What was he like?” Tim asks eyes focusing on the young man in the picture.

“To those on the outside he was cold, cruel, arrogant, and condescending, but to those of us who knew him, or that he loved, he was soft, a bleeding heart, and you two were nearly inseparable, no matter what life it was, whether you remembered each other or not you always seemed to find your way to each other. You never questioned why he left, it was as if you already knew he was going to.”

“Do you know where he is now?”

“No, and we're not allowed to search for him. In Memory Lane you notice how his collection had gone dark?” Tim nodded his head. “At some point he angered the primordial ones and they barred him from entering any dimension other than the one he was born in, we have to wait until his collection has once again been illuminated or he manages to walk once more, which may happen before his collection becomes illuminated.”

“Wouldn’t he be able to walk once the collection becomes illuminated and vice versa?”

“No, if a collection is illuminated then that means someone could go and fetch him no matter if he is awake at the time or not, if the collection is dark, the it doesn’t matter if he’s awake, he has to find his own way.”

“Has your collection ever gone dark?” Tim asks eyes rising to meet her mirth-filled ones.

“Oh many times, but I always seem to keep my memories, I’m pretty sure the gods play a game called ‘how fast can Ness make it back’.” Ness lets out a small laugh. “You though, you have never gone dark, but a long time ago you asked us to now pull you back before you showed up on your own, said that pulling you back before you came by yourself would mean that you were not ready yet.”

“What do you mean by us? You keep saying ‘us,’ do you mean you, JD, and myself?”

“No, ‘us’ the coven. You haven’t met them yet, but you will on your naming day, they are excited to see you again. Speaking of. Have you chosen a name yet?”

Tim could see the change of subject a mile away but he chose to let it slide. “I was thinking Eli or maybe James, but I am really attached to Tim.”

“Then stick with Tim, it’s no big deal. I’ve been Loch Ness since forever, something to remind myself of my first family and my first coven.”

“So I can stay Tim Drake?”

“Yeah of course you can, or you could keep the name Tim and change the other, no one is going to tell you you have to choose anew.” 

Tim paused for a minute and contemplated his next words. “So, if I told you I wanted to make my name Tim Ness… that would be okay?” He squirmed in his seat, his eyes not meeting Ness’. “Um, nev-” Tim wasn’t able to complete his next sentence, between one second and the next Ness had rounded the table and taken Tim up into a hug.

“I would love it if you took up the name Ness,” she whispered into his hair. “I’ll let the council know and on the next full moon we’ll complete the ritual.”

Tim smiled into Ness’ shoulder and something in the back of his mind whispered  _ ‘your almost home.’  _


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to see our BatBoys!!! Now, I know they are OOC but lets just take into account this is two years after Tim "died" so they are still being affected by the loss of their younger/older brother.  
> ~Ciao

Her feet landed softly on the pavement as she leapt from the ledge shadows converging around her to shield her from the sight of the one she was following. She hopes he doesn’t turn around suddenly any time soon because she needs time to move the shadows.  _ ‘It's a good thing,’ _ she decides, ‘ _ that I decided to learn how to read body language. _ ’ She had been following him for a couple of days now intent to find the hideout she was seeking, a hideout too well hidden that high level scrying spell wouldn’t cut it,  _ fucking anti-magic security _ . 

She watched as the figure rounded on a group of gang members and viciously beat them before tying them up.  _ ‘It’s been two years and they still feel the effects of death surround them.’  _ She continued to follow at a pace just far enough not to be heard because silencing charms only work if someone isn’t actively listening for something and the Bats are  **_always_ ** _ listening.  _

The vigilante stops on a street corner and stares up at a building that is across the street for only a second, but it’s enough to tell her what she wants to know. She takes his place on the corner and lets the shadows and spells fall away, she doesn’t have any reason to hide now, she has what she came for. She hears the click if a gun’s safety being taken off and she wonders if she should have worn yellow tonight. 

“Where did you come from?” His gravelly voice is distorted by his hood, it  _ really is a helmet.  _

“Over the river and through the woods.” She really isn’t lying but his stance still changes to a fighting one, gun still trained on her. “I saw what you did to the gang members, Jason, bit rough don’t you think?”

“How the fuck do you know my name?” Hood wasn’t playing around anymore he took two steps forward but she didn’t move, wouldn’t move.

“Well that certainly didn’t answer my question, you left one guy with a broken jaw.”

“He deserved it.”

“Why?” That gave Hood pause and gave her an opening. She lunged forward, far faster than an average human,  _ thank you very much _ , and pulled the gun from his grip all within the blink of an eye. “I hate guns and I won’t allow them in this part of the city, that is Tim’s rule as well right?”

“Tim’s dead, I control this part of Gotham now.” And there it is, Jason growls as he says it, his voice thick with sorrow. 

“If he really is dead then let his will stand, no guns in this part of Gotham,  _ for anyone _ .” Ness holds out the gun in a non-threatening manner for Jason to take. “I’ll be watching.” She turns to walk into where fog is starting to form and the sun is just starting to turn the sky red instead of black, but his stopped by a question ー

“Who are you?”

And this time she answers. “A friend of a brother.”

~

She sat on the worn couch just looking at the set up before her. She had to admit she was impressed, Tim had done well for himself in this life. This was the third night in a row she was waiting there, waiting for someone to climb through the window or walk through the door, or come up from the secret entrance in the closet, there  _is_ a joke there she was sure of it. 

After another twenty minutes of waiting in the dark she finally heard it, the shimmying of a window from the outside. She smirked and waited for the older man to crawl into the room before clapping to turn the lights on making the other let out a small shriek and get into a fighting stance.

“I wouldn’t, Dick,” she said not moving from her place on the couch. “Your brother already found out that I am not someone to be reckoned with.”

“The girl in the yellow hoodie that Hood swears isn’t human and might be related to the Flashes?” Dick seems to melt into a more relaxed stance. “Evidently you are a friend of Timtam’s, only to be further proved by the fact you are sitting on his couch and have not set off any of his alarms.”

“You still speak about him in the present tense.” I wasn’t a question.

“He’s dead, but we never found a body. Jason died, we found a body but he still came back, Damian came back, Bruce came back,  _ I came back _ , Tim will come back too.”

“Having faith is good, Dick, but believing something blindly will only lead to heartbreak.” ‘Cause even though Tim was  _ alive  _ he will never be the same Tim Drake that left them, when he eventually returns to earth he will be Tim Ness, Lord of the Forests and Animals, like he was always meant to be. 

“I am not believing anything blindly, people in our profession don’t tend to stay dead, that even goes for the bad guys.”

Ness shrugs and stands moving past Dick and into Tim’s bedroom to his closet with the false back that leads down to a hidden room filled with all things Red Robin and vigilante. “Come with me.” She types in the pin and doesn’t stop to see Dick’s reaction. “I need your opinion on something.”

Dick followed her down and she rolled her eyes and thought to herself,  _ ‘either way too trusting or way too cocky.’ _

“What did you have to ask me?” Dick stands in the middle of the room while Ness goes over to a rack of bo staffs, gesturing to it she asks ー

“Do you know which one was his favorite?”

“Well, for the most part he carried around the retractable one, he said it was the easiest to carry, when we went up against a bigger bad he would use the titanium-chromium one, or if one of the supers went off the chart he had one with a kryptonite core. He also has a couple training ones.” Dick’s eyebrows furrowed looking at the rack. “But I don’t recall him having a favorite.”

“His favorite doesn’t reside on this rack, or even in this room.” Ness reaches for the retractable staff and pulls it off the rack before turning to Dick. “In fact, his favorite bo staff lies with his greatest enemy for safe keeping, I need you to get it for me.”

“Why would I do that?” 

Ness smirks before hitting Dick once in the chest, once on the head, and once behind the knees making Dick collapse in front of her. “Because I told you to and because you owe it to Tim. I’ll be back in a fortnight, do not disappoint, Big Wing.” She smiles once again before hitting his head one more time knocking him out.

~

“So you are the girl in the yellow hoodie that has been wandering around Drake’s territory.” A haughty male voice said from behind her. "Nightwing isn't very happen with what you did, I'd stay clear of him for a while."

"Noted." Ness turned to look from where she sat on the ledge. “I didn’t expect you to wonder around this part of town.”

“And why wouldn’t I, while Drake is slacking off somewhere in death we have to pick up the slack until he comes back.”

“You and Dick both,” Ness hummed in contemplation. “Why is that? You and Dick believe Tim will come back from the dead, but Jason doesn’t, and what about the Bat? What does he believe?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” The young bat asks, Ness can hear him shifting his weight.

“He doesn’t come here, not ever, and I never go out there,” Ness sighs and pats the spot next to her, “come sit.”

Damian hesitates for a moment before joining her. “I have been contemplating certain things,” - he hesitates - “you managed to get into Drake’s nest, how? I have been trying for over a year and have not yet succeeded.”

“I have known Timothy for a long time, there is very little we did not share.” Ness starts playing with the drawstrings of her hoodie. “Come, I will show you how to get in.” She then lets herself fall forward off the ledge shocking Damian into giving a small shout.

“You are like Drake in the fact that you have very little care for your own self,” Damian says as he joins her on the ground.

“It’s not that we have very little care for our own selves, it’s that we know what we are capable of and what our bodies and minds can take.” Ness motions across the road from the theater. “What do you see?” 

“An old theater, it looks abandoned,” Damian raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Look at it closely,  _ what do you  _ **_see_ ** _? _ ” She uses her hand to turn Damian’s head towards the theater.

“That’s ー but that’s the Monarch Theater, why are we here?”

“What’s the one place Tim kept separate from the rest of the family?”

“His nest.”

“And where is one place  _ Bruce Wayne  _ would  **_never_ ** go?”

“Monarch Theater.” Ness watched as the light of realization came to Damian’s face. “Holy shit, he’s a genius.”

“Language.”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Doesn’t matter, find the entrance.”

“Well he wouldn’t put it somewhere as obvious as the front door, but it also wouldn’t be so hidden that it looks suspicious when he comes and goes, so maybe a loading are, an emergency-” his eyes narrow when they catch the side of the building. “The fire escape.”

“Good. It’s a multi-story building, odd for a theater, what floor?”

“Not the first and not the top or second, it would have to be a level that Red Robin could easily grapple to, so third or fourth floor, most likely third because it gives him more escape routes should someone attack him here.”

“Good, you’re correct, but now, how do we get  _ in. _ ” And that gives Damian pause, he was good but Tim was a different level of  _ good,  _ and he remembers the fingers they almost lost in medical from that damn utility belt.

“I ー I’m not sure, I’d have to get a closer look.”

“You cannot do it from over here?”

“I do not know Drake well enough to correctly guess what his security would be like,” Damian hangs his head in shame. “It is a regret that I hold close.”

Ness touches his arm lightly. “It’s okay, I’ll show you.” With the hand still on his arm she leads him across the street and to the third landing of the fire escape. “It’s a little tricky to catch but there is a slight flaw in the seal right here, big enough for the tip of a paper clip or bobby pin,” she pulls one from her pocket. “You slide it in and wait three seconds before sliding it to the right, that only deactivates the motion censored tasers on the inside of the windowsill.”

“Then why are we using metal?”

“For reasons.” She gave the sixteen year-old a cheeky smile. “Back to the window, after disabling the tasers you have to actually unlock the window which is as simple as-” she reached over and flicked open the lock. “He never did keep anything locked, just booby-trapped.” 

“He wanted people to spring them.”

“I’m not going to not say that he didn’t not have a sadistic streak a mile wide in him.”

“That’s too many ‘not’s in one sentence.” Damian shakes his head. “Anything else guarding this place?”

“Not here. The only entrances to this floor are this window, the actual door to the stairway, and the door leading to his nest, that one is a tough cookie, locked and booby-trapped.” 

“A tough cookie still has some sweetness so tell me.”

“There is one code that will deactivate everything and I just so happen to know it.”

“How did you get him to tell you it?”

“He didn’t.” She sends another cheeky smile his way and crawls through the window. She didn’t have a problem with it, Tim didn’t have a problem with it, but some of the larger heroes like Supes or Batsy? They would have a tougher time, so would Damian when the time came and he grew into his full stature.

Damian stands there frozen for a few moments inside the window taking in the area round him. The apartment is relatively simple, a couch, tv, table and chares, and a kitchenette with two doors presumably leading to a bathroom and bedroom, all slightly messy,  _ lived in _ . He’s barely conscious of Ness’ ‘this way,’ and the hand leading him to the bedroom where there is a laptop sitting on a full sized bed and a large picture of the whole family ( _ whole)  _ sitting atop an old dresser beside a group selfie of the Titans, out of costume of course.

Ness caught where Damian was looking as she made her way over to the closet. “He always put more stock in memories than he did things, that’s not to say he was a minimalist you should see his other safe houses, but the most important things, those were always put in a place where they could not be overlooked.”

Damian walks over to the picture of the Titans and picks it up, traveling over Tim’s smiling face. “I’ve never seen him smile like that, he didn’t smile when I was around. Well he did, but not a real smile.”

“He smiled when he spoke about you and your progress with shaking your League training. He was proud of you.” In the background Damian could hear the faint beeping of a code being entered into a control panel. “Here we go.” The back of the closet slid down into the floor and a dimly lit staircase appeared. “I’ll give you the code later, but for now.” She motioned for him to go first.

Damian stopped right at the entrance his arm brushing up against hers, he was  _ still  _ waiting for that growth spurt, and says, “thank you,” before entering.


	7. Chapter 7

“Alright Little Ness, now that the full moon is only a week away i think it is time you get to know your fellow coven members and what we all are about,” Ness says throwing herself onto the couch next to Tim who has one of the old tomes sitting in his lap, he must be working on his Sumerian because she  _ knows  _ they have a translated English version. 

“What do you mean by that?” He looks up, eyebrow raised.

“I mean put the book away and listen. You have probably noticed that when we meet others they tend to address you as lord, there is a reason behind that. Our coven is made of of some pretty important people,  _ old  _ gods born anew, monarchs of entire dimensions, souls so  _ ancient  _ they make the fucking  _ sun _ look brand spanking new, and  _ you  _ my dear are one of the most respected members.” She takes the tome from his lack grasp and places it on the floor, she probably won't remember it’s there until she stubs her toe on it later. “There are ten of us in total, and unlike other covens we have no head witch, we are more like the Knights of the round table in that regard, we’ll all have to come to decisions together.”

“Are we  _ like  _ the Knights of the Round Table or were we the Knights of the Round Table?”

“They  _ might  _ have gotten the idea from us.” Ness shakes her head, “stop distracting me.”

“Stop letting me distract you.”

Ness gives a glare and continues. “Gälee Rapælle is from Juro, she is the embodiment of light and the keeper of life on that world, she’s hard to miss with her giant lion familiar Tarkë and the fact that she is always covered in gold, don’t let her regal speaking fool you, you turn your back and you are bound to be pranked. Joshua Brown is from Earth, England to be exact and he lords over the element of air and all the gods related to the sky, wind, and storms. He’s got the most beautiful black stallion familiar named Nansmen.” Ness had to stop and take a breath before continuing. 

“Theo, well Theo is a bit different, she’s dead and is employed by the gods of death to be one of their reapers, you won’t see he familiar Riko very often he’s a mouse and doesn’t like Anatol too much. Theo and Gälee are also in a relationship, its weird until you remember that Gälee’s natural form is a glowing ball of light and then it’s just too bizarre to think about any longer. Xael is the daughter of Gälee and Theo and while technically speaking she is a Juroenan she is also classified as one of the Fae peoples of Avalon, and the Greeks claimed her as either Eris or Ares, let me tell you the Spartans  _ loved  _ her. She will also sometimes be called Atë by the Greeks, weird  _ considering _ who they thought mothered Atë, Loki by the Norse, Trebaruna by the Lusitanians, and Morrigan by the Irish.”

“So what you are saying is that she got around alot.”

“Yes but don’t say that around her. She is basically a goddess/god of war and a trickster, she also has strong control over emotions, both her own and the emotions of others. Buzz her familiar is a black bear who loves to cuddle so if you are feeling lonely he’s always ready to hang out. Xael is also super excited that you are no pacifist in this life so she can spar and train with you.”

“I can’t wait.” And Ness didn’t know if that was sarcasm or not but he smiled anyway, she was getting her  _ family  _ back, maybe it wasn’t her whole family but it was close.

“Now, I’ve told you about Gälee, Theo, Joshua, and Xael, so let’s talk about Satine, she is the oldest of all of us, she represents the cosmos and rules over chaos and clarity, clarity being truth as she  _ cannot _ tell a lie and  _ cannot _ be lied to, she is a great person to go over your problems with. Now Satine’s physical form is that of a humanoid with a few defining features, for one she has horns on her head and in some places her skin is purple and in others is pitch black but all over her reflex the stars of the universe,” Ness spoke of Satine with such awe that it made Tim yearn to see her with his own eyes.

“She sounds extraordinary,” Tim says softly.

“She is. Her familiar is a ram by the name of Amun, and like his witch, Amun is old, a powerful being in his own right, the Egyptians worshiped him as the king of their gods. Now, one of my best friends and the closest to age as me is Nestor, the Greeks named him Hermes and the Romans Apollo, although he is shit at magic pertaining to light. His familiar is Leto, the wolf mother, she is much older than Nestor and it was actually her that suckled Romulus and Remus until the shepherd came.”

“Wait wasn’t Leto the mother of Apollo and Artemis?” Tim asks his head tilted slightly in confusion.

“Little N, if you didn’t already figure this out, mortals know so very little about the  _ real  _ state of the universe and time, they can be forgiven for their mistakes. I mean they thought that Xael was bother her mother and her daughter, so you know, schematics.” Ness shrugs in a ‘what can you do?’ manner.

“I get it, up until a few months ago I didn’t think any of this was real. Don’t get me wrong I knew magic was a thing, but I didn’t realize it was a thing anybody could learn, I thought it was like Harry Potter and you had to be born with it.”

“For some types of magic, yes. Zatanna, Dr. Fate, their magic you do, most of it is just able to be learnt. Some people have a more natural knack for it just like any other talent, that’s all it really is, a talent. For example, if Joshua went up against another witch whose main type of magic had to do with air, Joshua would wipe the floor with them, he cannot be touched by air or storm magic, he has too much control over those elements, now fire? He would get burnt to a crisp.”

“So Joshua is like the Lionel Messi of air witches?”

“Exactly. Now unless you have any more questions can I keep introducing you to the coven? We’re almost done.”

“Please do.”

“Now, Nestor has a twin brother Kronus, Lord of Time and Creation. Kronus is a lot older than Nestor though, by a few millenia actually, but after Nestor took up magic they started to be reborn at the same time. Like this one time during the first Great War of Avalon, Kronus died and it took us thirty years to realize that he hadn't been resurrected yet, so Nestor threw himself off of a cliff and the next day they had been reborn together so we try to make sure they die relatively close together.”

“Little morbid.”

“Yeah, but so is spending an unnecessarily long time in the underworld.”

“Fair.”

“Anyway, Kronus is old, Nestor is young, but they are always twins. Kronus’s crow familiar, Trik is usually seen sitting atop Leta’s head and is actually a baby compared to Leta and is Kronus’ second familiar, he doesn't talk about what happened to his first one, so don’t go mentioning it. Actually you, the other  _ you _ , might have known, you were his student at one point.” 

“But still don’t mention it?”

“Oh yeah, definitely don’t mention it.” Ness stole one of the pillows propping Tim’s head up and cuddled it to her chest, the faux orange fur tickling her nose. “Anything else you want to know before the full moon.”

“Why are you such an asshole?” Ness laughed as an answer. “Jack was part of our coven right? What about him?”

“Jack was different, he was one of the original Atlantean princes  _ and _ the original Ocean Master, it gave him a natural control over water, which he later expanded and made stronger through learned magick, his familiar Tal is an odd one for a water based witch, he’s a Verreaux’s eagle with one hell of a temper.”

“What can you tell me about me that past me would have left out of the journals?” Tim waves a hand toward the stacks of leather bound books sitting on the kitchen isle.

“You were always too modest in those things, it has caused problems in the past. You were not born as to say, you were molded.” 

“Molded?”

“Like the Amazonians crafted by Aphrodite,” Ness states matter-of-factly. “The original deities and spirits of nature came together and molded you a body from red clay from the base of a volcano and mud from the bottom of the first spring. Then when it was time to breath life into you, the Greek Primordial Being of the Earth known as Gaea took her heart and placed it into you, bringing you to life.”

Tim scoffed. “Well aren’t I special.”

“Well no-one else has ever had a primordial being kill themselves so we could live. If it helps at all most of the other gods in the Greek Pantheon don’t particularly like you all that much. The amount of times one of them has killed you is a bit excessive but the others in our coven tampered them down a bit, and the fact that the humans eventually included you in the pantheon as Pan didn’t hurt at all.”

“Who helped me?”

“Any of the gods who had a particularly strong connection to the earth really, namely Hades and Persephone, Demeter, Dionysus, Poseidon, believe it or not  _ Artemis. _ ” 

“The alter in the corner?”

“One to Hades and Persephone, they helped you the most, especially when it came to you being reborn. As a thank-you we started watching over their sacred owl, he dies last winter so I’m incubating the egg, it shouldn't be too much longer now but you never know with sacred animals..”

“You said that you were much younger than the rest of us and much closer in age to Nestor?”

“Hmmm, I was a priestess of Hestia and a protector of the sacred flame. One day we were attacked and I died protecting the flame. Hestia had raised me herself from when I was a baby and decided that she was going to resurrect me, so she used her flame for bring me back to life. It of course had unintended consequences, I gained the ability to control and create fire and manipulate metal. After we found that out Hestia decided to help hide me, especially seeing what was happening to you, so I went to train with Hephaestus, and later trained some of the greatest weaponsmiths in the world. The Norse called me the Mother of Dwarves, and I am the original dragon. It wasn’t until the Romans took over that we found out that I also had a way with plasma and other superheated things. Let me tell you, Jupiter was not happy with me and I may or may not have caused Vesuvius to explode.”

Tim’s eyes were wide as saucers and just kept growing the more she spoke. “The other elements didn’t come quite so easily to me, I can control metal from the earth, but plants? They seem to do exactly the opposite as I ask of them more times than not, air is a bit better as it actually helps feed my fire, and water is a total no-go, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.”

Tim laughed a little before asking, “why do you think that is?”

“Well fire and water are natural enemies as water hurts fire, same with plants and fire, air is the only thing that can’t be hurt or hurt fire. The other elements tend to work well together, fire is the outlier.”

“Just as you seem to think you are,” Tim smirked at her startled expression.

“All magic users are outliers Timothy. I’m just more of an outlier in our coven then the rest. I was never given god status like the rest, even Theo was made into a minor god after her death. If Hestia hadn't cared about me the way she did I wouldn’t have even been brought back to life. If the man that found me hadn't brought me to her temple I would never have had the chance to acquire magic.” Ness shrugs making Tim squint his eyes and furrow his brows.

“I don’t believe in coincidences. You were obviously meant to be here, even if you had never been taken to Hestia you still would have found your way to this place in this time.” 

“I guess so. You ready for the ceremony?”

“More ready than I have ever been for anything.”


	8. Note

I have become increasingly unhappy with my work for this fic so I'm doing a major overhal so this fic will be on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

Hope you all understand!

~Ciao 


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